Rounding up the big stories from WWDC 2024
The Apple WWDC 2024 keynote is always one of the highlights of the tech calendar, and this year’s edition was bigger than most. That’s because, as widely predicted, Tim Cook used the occasion to reveal Apple Intelligence – arguably the biggest development in Apple-land since… well, the reveal of the Vision Pro last year.
As well as the big AI-related news, the nearly two-hour Apple event was absolutely packed with detail on everything from iOS 18 to the latest macOS to iPadOS, watchOS and tvOS.
You can check out our WWDC 2024 live blog for full info on everything that was announced, but if you want the highlights then here are the 13 biggest announcements from WWDC 2024.1. Apple Intelligence is coming soon…
Let’s start with the big one, then.
Apple Intelligence is Apple’s new family of AI features, which will thread its way through every Apple platform and even work with third-party apps. It’ll be entirely free, and available on iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia via their respective betas, then fully rolled out later this year.
It approaches AI in a very Apple way, which means privacy first, and most features work on the device you’re using, without sharing to the cloud. When you need more power, Apple has a Power Cloud Compute option for complex requests, but Apple’s cloud still focuses more on privacy than any AI we’ve seen so far.
Among the many features on offer you’ll get access to generative writing, generative image creation, and third-party API tools, in addition to the massive upgrade coming to Siri (see below). Apple was a little late to the AI party, but it’ll be fully up to speed soon.
Read more: Apple reveals Apple Intelligence as its gambit in the personal AI arena2. But not everyone will get to use it
Exciting though Apple Intelligence is, it will only be available on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPad and Mac models using the Apple M1 chip or later.
This is understandable, given that it needs powerful Apple silicon to work, but will be disappointing for anyone who owns a standard iPhone 15, any iPhone 14 or earlier model, or indeed an Intel-based MacBook. Expect sales of the rumored iPhone 16 range to benefit considerably…3. Siri got a huge update – and now comes with added ChatGPT
Apple’s voice assistant has been treading water for years, but Siri will finally get the makeover it so badly needs in iOS 18. That includes a visual refresh, with the assistant now a glowing light around the edges of your iPhone’s screen.
But Siri has also been given a much-needed brain transplant. It’ll have ‘on-screen awareness’ to make it work better with apps – and if it can’t answer a question, you can plug it into ChatGPT-4o’s model for free, cloud-based wisdom. The bad news? The new Siri is powered by Apple Intelligence, which means that as stated above, you’ll only get it on the latest iPhone 15 Pro models, or iPads and Macs that have at least an M1 chip. Still, it’ll be a nice perk when we do upgrade.
Read more: Apple’s Siri assistant just got a massive AI upgrade with ChatGPT – here’s what’s new4. Custom emojis with generative AI will ruin communication
Oh boy. If you thought emoji use was bad before, just wait for Apple’s new feature that enables you to just tell your iPhone/iPad/Mac what cool new emoji you want, and it’ll create it for you using generative AI – so there will truly be one for every occasion.
Some will be adorable, some will be surreal, some will be disturbing, obviously. Will we love this feature? Or, more likely, will it be the moment when… hmmm, how to describe this? ‘Hey iPhone, make us an emoji of a man in a leather jacket jumping his jetski over a shark.
